Overview
The Hall Jackson papers, 1771-1810 (inclusive), undated, principally consist of correspondence from Hall Jackson (1739-1797) between 1771 and 1790 to his patients and other physicians regarding medical cases and remedies. There is also a small number of nineteenth century records generated by Dr. William Perry (1788-1887), a Harvard College and Harvard Medical School graduate who was in possession of the Jackson papers.
Dates
- Creation: 1771-1810 (inclusive), undated.
Creator
- Jackson, Hall, 1739-1797. (Person)
Language of Materials
Papers are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research. Access requires advance notice. Contact Public Services for further information.
Conditions Governing Use
Public Domain.
Extent
0.09 cubic feet (1 flat storage box)The Hall Jackson papers, 1771-1810 (inclusive), undated, principally consist of correspondence from Hall Jackson (1739-1797) between 1771 and 1790 to his patients and other physicians regarding medical cases and remedies. There is also a small number of nineteenth century records generated by Dr. William Perry (1788-1887), a Harvard College and Harvard Medical School graduate who was in possession of the Jackson papers.
Correspondents include Dr. Edward Augustus Holyoke (1728-1829), A.B., Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and English physician William Withering (1741-1799), with whom Jackson wrote about the use of purple foxglove in treating dropsy, and the family members of patients, including a boy on whom he proposed to perform a leg amputation.
There are also two manuscripts not created or collected by Jackson consisting of notes taken by William Perry on a lecture probably given by Harvard Divinity School professor Henry Ware on human physiology. Perry received his A.B. from Harvard and was a physician in Exeter, New Hampshire.
Papers are entirely in English.
Biographical Note
Hall Jackson, honorary M.D., Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, was a physician practicing primarily in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. During the American Revolutionary War, he served as a surgeon to New Hampshire regimental troops. Jackson was also the first American surgeon to perform couching, an operation to remove cataracts, and he headed several smallpox inoculation hospitals in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Hall Jackson was born in Hampton, New Hampshire, on 11 November 1739 to Sarah and Clement Jackson (1705-1788), also a physician. The family moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1749. Jackson studied medicine with his father, after which he studied surgery in London hospitals for a year. In 1763, he returned to Portsmouth, where he opened an apothecary shop and established his medical practice.
Jackson frequently performed smallpox inoculations, and he oversaw smallpox hospitals in Portsmouth, as well as in Charlestown and Marblehead, Massachusetts. After the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Jackson volunteered his services as a regimental surgeon; he was appointed chief surgeon to the New Hampshire troops in the Continental Army in 1775.
In 1786, he published a text on diphtheria, Observations and Remarks on the Putrid Malignant Sore-Throat. After reading English physician William Withering's (1741-1799) book on the use of purple foxglove (digitalis purpurea) in treating dropsy (congestive heart failure), Jackson wrote to him requesting seeds from the plant, which he distributed to other physicians in the United States.
Jackson was inducted as an honorary fellow in the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1783, and he was awarded an honorary M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1793. He was also one of the founding members of the New Hampshire Medical Society (1791).
Jackson married Mary Dalling Wentworth (1743-1805) in 1765, and they had two children who lived to adulthood, Theodore (1766-1784) and Mary Jackson Symmes (1769-1808). He died on 28 September 1797 from a fever brought on by a fractured rib sustained in a carriage accident.
Series in the Collection
- I. Correspondence of Hall Jackson, 1771-1790, undated
- II. Papers of William Perry, 1810, undated
Custodial History
The Hall Jackson papers came into the possession of William Perry at an unknown date and descended through his family before they were gifted to the Harvard Medical Library.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Hall Jackson papers were gifted to the Harvard Medical Library in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine by Frances Dudley Shepard in 1971. (Accession number 1970/m/54. Frances Dudley Shepard. 1971 April 14.)
Resources on Hall Jackson
- Estes, J. Worth. Jackson, Hall. American National Biography Online: 2000.
Processing Information
Processed by Brooke McManus, 2016 January.
Processing staff in the Center for the History of Medicine analyzed, arranged, and described the papers, and created a finding aid to improve access in 2016. The collection was described in a card catalog at an earlier date; the folder titles, as previously devised by staff, were retained.
Please note that the following abbreviations have been used: "A.L." for autographed letter; "A.L.s." for autographed letter signed; "A.MS." for autographed manuscript; and "MS.D." for manuscript document.
Genre / Form
Geographic
Occupation
Topical
- Amputation -- New Hampshire -- History -- 18th century.
- Amputation -- history.
- Congestive heart failure -- History -- 18th century.
- Digitalis (Drug) -- History -- 18th century.
- Digitalis Glycosides -- history.
- Edema -- History -- 18th century.
- Edema -- history.
- History of Medicine.
- Materia Medica -- history.
- Materia medica.
- Medical Records.
- Medical care -- New England -- History -- 18th century.
- Medicine -- 18th century.
- Medicine -- Case studies.
- Medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions.
- Patient Care -- history.
- Patients.
- Pharmaceutical Preparations.
- Physicians -- New Hampshire -- 18th century.
- Purple foxglove -- History -- 18th century.
Subject
- Harvard Medical School -- Students (Organization)
- Jackson, Hall, 1739-1797. (Person)
Creator
- Jackson, Hall, 1739-1797. (Person)
- Title
- Jackson, Hall, 1739-1797. Papers, 1771-1810 (inclusive), undated: Finding Aid.
- Author
- Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine. Center for the History of Medicine.
- Language of description
- und
- Sponsor
- Preservation and description was supported by the Arcadia-funded Colonial North American Project at Harvard University.
- EAD ID
- med00232
Repository Details
Part of the Center for the History of Medicine (Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine) Repository
The Center for the History of Medicine in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine is one of the world's leading resources for the study of the history of health and medicine. Our mission is to enable the history of medicine and public health to inform healthcare, the health sciences, and the societies in which they are embedded.